Payments Business Analyst

Job Title: Payments Business Analyst Employment: Permanent Work Location: Chester, UK (Hybrid, 3 days in office) Job Description: * We are seeking an experienced Payments Business Analyst with strong expertise in banking payments, payment processing, and regulatory initiatives. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of payment schemes such as SEPA (SCT & Instant), CHAPS, Faster Payments, BACS, SWIFT MT/MX, TARGET2, and ISO 20022 migration. The role will involve working closely with business stakeholders, product owners, architects, and technology teams to deliver strategic payment transformation initiatives. Key Responsibilities: * Gather, analyze, and document business, functional, and non-functional requirements for payment systems and platforms. * Work with stakeholders across business, operations, compliance, and technology teams to define payment solutions and process improvements. * Analyze end-to-end payment flows for domestic and cross-border payment schemes. * Create and maintain Business Requirement Documents (BRDs), Functional Requirement Documents (FRDs), user stories, process flows, and gap analyses. * Support payment modernization and ISO 20022 migration initiatives, including MT-to-MX message transformation requirements. * Conduct impact assessments for changes related to payment schemes, regulations, and operational processes. * Support regulatory and compliance initiatives related to payments, sanctions screening, AML, and financial crime controls. Required Skills & Experience * Proven experience as a Business Analyst within the banking or financial services industry. * Strong knowledge of payment systems and payment processing lifecycles. * Hands-on experience with the following: * SEPA (SCT & Instant), CHAPS, Faster Payments (FPS), BACS, SWIFT MT/MX Messaging, Cross-Border Payments. * Experience supporting ISO 20022 migration programs and message mapping initiatives. * Strong understanding of payment operations, settlement, clearing, reconciliation, and exception handling processes. * Experience writing user stories, acceptance criteria, process maps, and business requirements documentation. * Familiarity with Agile, Scrum, and Jira. * Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills